PHIL 399: Senior Seminar (HC)

Develop your literature review

Literature reviews are a particularly useful kind of article when doing research. They address the issues involved in a particular question and the debates among scholars. They map out the intellectual terrain succinctly and give you the major landmarks in terms of key authors and significant titles.

The Oxford Bibliographies Onlineprovide literature reviews for a variety of fields including Philosophy The essays take the form of an annotated bibliography. It gives you the benefit of expert advice when identifying what to read for your research.

Background

The first four resources are online and the last resource is print. The print encyclopedia can be found in the reference room. All of the resources are fairly current and are good places to obtain an overview of your topics as well as suggestions for further reading.

Since 1967, the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, described by Booklist as the best and most comprehensive English-language reference source for philosophy, has been the cornerstone of the philosophy reference shelf. Lauded for its clear and accessible presentation of wide-ranging philosophical subjects, the Encyclopedia has earned its place as a first-stop resource for general readers, students and educators.

Specialized / Topical Resources

Below you will find some book series which have volumes on specialized areas or topics in philosophy. There are many areas covered, and some of the books can be found elsewhere in the Tri-Co. For more information, search in TRIPOD for "Routledge Philosophy Companions" and "Blackwell Philosophy Guides".

This text provides a comprehensive and the up-to-date survey of epistemology, charting its history, providing a thorough account of its key thinkers and movements, and addressing enduring questions and contemporary research in the field.

Hermeneutics is a major theoretical and practical form of intellectual enquiry, central not only to philosophy but many other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. With phenomenology and existentialism, it is also one of the twentieth century's most important philosophical movements and includes major thinkers such as Heidegger, Gadamer and Ricoeur. The Routledge Companion to Hermeneutics is an outstanding guide and reference source to the key philosophers, topics and themes in this exciting subject and is the first volume of its kind. Comprising over fifty chapters by a team of international contributors the Companion is divided into five parts: main figures in the hermeneutical tradition movement, including Heidegger, Gadamer and Ricoeur main topics in hermeneutics such as language, truth, relativism and history the engagement of hermeneutics with central disciplines such as literature, religion, race and gender, and art hermeneutics and world philosophies including Asian, Islamic and Judaic thought hermeneutic challenges and debates, such as critical theory, structuralism and phenomenology.

This guide brings together eighteen original interpretations of the modern philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche. The contributors succeed brilliantly in placing their figures within a rich historical, cultural, and philosophical context, noting some of the important ways in which their ideas and arguments were shaped by the intellectual currents of the time, and how they in turn shaped subsequent philosophical debate.

The Blackwell Guide to American Philosophy offers the most ambitious survey to date of American philosophical thought. Provides a comprehensive history of philosophical thought in America. Brings together 24 newly commissioned essays written by leading scholars in American philosophy. Covers all of the major eighteenth-, nineteenth- and twentieth-century philosophical movements in America including idealism, pragmatism and naturalism. Examines the major figures and themes in American philosophical thought. Includes useful bibliographies.

Comprising a series of specially commissioned chapters by leading scholars, this comprehensive volume presents an up-to-date survey of the central themes in the philosophy of mind. It leads the reader through a broad range of topics, including Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Dualism, Emotions, Folk Psychology, Free Will, Individualism, Personal Identity and The Mind-Body Problem. Provides a state of the art overview of philosophy of mind. Contains 16 newly-commissioned articles, all of which are written by internationally distinguished scholars. Each chapter reviews a central issue, examines the current state of the discipline with respect to the topic, and discusses possible futures of the field. Provides a solid foundation for further study.